IPFW falls in final seconds again

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Mastodons lose tournament game on late jumper

News-Sentinel staff report

Saturday, November 16, 2013 - 1:06 am

For the second time in less than a week, IPFW fell in men's basketball action in the final seconds of a hotly-contested game.

The Mastodons led Texas A&M Corpus Christi late Friday, but the Islanders used a step-back fade-away jumper from guard John Jordan to top the Mastodons 72-71 in the second round of the Holiday Inn Downtown Marina Islanders Basketball Tournament.

Joe Edwards scored a career-high 19 points for the Mastodons, while Pierre Bland and Isaiah McCray each scored 14 points in the loss. Steve Forbes poured in 12 points, with Joe Reed chipping in four.

Edwards pulled down seven rebounds, while Bland dished out four assists and Evans picked up a pair of steals.

The game saw a total of 12 tie scores and 23 lead changes, while the biggest lead gained by either team was seven, when the Mastodons jumped ahead seven minutes into the first half.

The Mastodons led early, including by as many as seven after a Forbes lay-in with 13 minutes to play in the first half, before the hosts ran off eight straight points including back-to-back three-point baskets. The Islanders led for the first time in the game at 14-13 with 10:13 to play in the opening half.

The leaded changed hands 11 times in all in the first half, including with nine seconds left in the half when Joy Williamson converted an old fashioned three-point play, giving the hosts a 33-32 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.

On the first possession of the second half Jordan converted a three-point play, putting the Islander lead to four, the largest margin of deficit for the Mastodons, before the 'Dons scored 11 straight, including three three-pointers by McCray in a four-possession span, before a Bland lay-in put IPFW ahead by seven at 43-36, closing the 11-0 run.

The Mastodons kept their lead until the 7:18 mark of the game, and the lead changed hands 10 more times in the final seven minutes of the game, with neither team leading by more than one in the final five minutes of the game.

IPFW went ahead by one with just under a minute to play when Bland hit a lay-in with 59 seconds on the clock. Each team had an empty possession before Jordan hit the game-winning shot with 4.2 seconds on the clock. The Mastodons had an attempt in the final span, but could not get a shot off, as the squad fell 72-71.

The Mastodons hit 24-of-52 shots from the field (47.1 percent), 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from long range, and 66.7 percent (16-of-24) from the charity stripe, as the squad was out-rebounded by one (30-to-29) in the loss.